The document begins with an overview of the proposed data model. Description of the data model starts out fairly basic (you’ll see a lot of FRBR-like terms) and then gets a bit more complex. A glossary is included to help define terms (serialization, JSON) that may be unfamiliar. The authors then define linked open data (enter Tim Berners-Lee’s four principles of linked data and that good old linked data cloud diagram). This section is followed up by a quick review of linked data initiatives already undertaken by libraries and others. Concluding words include a forecast for future work in linked library data.

Six institutions (called Early Experimenters) will begin testing this data model: British Library, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, George Washington University, National Library of Medicine, OCLC, and Princeton University, and the Library of Congress. An update session is planned for ALA Midwinter in Seattle on Sunday, January 27, 2013 from 10:30-12:00 in the Conference Center of the Washington Convention Center, Room 304.